Recently, around the United States, there have been many different abnormal weather patterns. In Hawaii, the devastating wildfires have displaced many people. On the eastern coast of the United States, two hurricanes have occurred, and in the Ellicott City area, there have been unstable weather conditions.
The Hawaii wildfires started at the beginning of August on the island of Maui and have been devastating. The fires, in a town called Kula, located in central Maui, were ignited by high temperatures and strong winds from a category four storm and drought conditions. Over a thousand people were reported missing and ninety seven people were confirmed dead. Many structures, as well as two-thousand residential buildings were lost to the fire.
“There seemed to be miscommunication during the spread of the fires. Obviously wildfires are natural, but these fires seemed more severe than usual” junior Santhosh Venkateshwaran said.
For relief efforts, there are over one-thousand federal responders in Maui. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide funding to help communities in Maui rebuild their homes and communities.
On the east coast of the United States both Hurricanes Idalia and Lee made landfall in the month of September. Hurricane Idalia started on September 2nd, in the Caribbean Sea, and moved across the Gulf of Mexico,hitting central Florida and parts of Southern Georgia. In these parts of the country, the hurricane caused flooding, damaged structures and caused people to evacuate their homes. Idalia continued up the coast to the Carolinas and eventually ended when it went east into the Atlantic Ocean, where it downgraded to a tropical storm.
“Hopefully the government can help rebuild the areas that were affected as well as support the people who lost their homes during Hurricane Idalia,” senior Arvin Mungara said.
Hurricane Lee, the most recent storm, was listed a category three hurricane and started east of the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean. Lee traveled north and eventually hit land in Canada’s Nova Scotia province. Lee ended up lasting a couple of weeks, from September 5th to September 17th, eventually ending off the coast of Canada.
Recently, in the Ellicott City and Howard County area, there have been some interesting weather patterns. A few weeks ago, an unexpected thunderstorm hit in the middle of a drought. Maryand and other states along the east coast were experiencing unusually low rainfall and high temperatures when that storm hit. From July to mid September these conditions persisted until breaking recently with cooler weather and increased rain.
“It was nice to finally get some rain. It has been way too hot these last few weeks and the rain cooled the temperature down a little,” senior Yash Santhosh said.
Tropical storm Ophelia also has been contributing to the wet weather in Maryland and other states along the East Coast. Tropical storm Ophealia made landfall on September 23rd, with its impact continuing through to September 25th, in Howard County.
Around the nation there have been many different climate and weather patterns. The Maui wildfires and both hurricanes Lee and Idalia have affected many people. Weather patterns in Howard County continue to change as it seems the summer-long drought has begun to end. The question of the cause of these weather patterns still lingers as the severity continues to increase.